Shehla Rashid booked for sedition over J&K posts

NEW DELHI: Kashmiri activist Shehla Rashid was booked on Friday for sedition over her comments about alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

The Delhi Police’s Special Cell said that the FIR was registered on September 3 and Rashid, who is also a Jawaharlal Nehru University Ph.D scholar, was booked for sedition on a criminal complaint by Supreme Court lawyer Alok Srivastav who had sought her arrest.

"An FIR has been registered against her under sections 124-A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity), 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly tweeting false information about Army raids in the Kashmir Valley based on a complaint filed by Supreme Court lawyer Alakh Alok Srivastava," a senior police officer said.

In a series of tweets, Rashid had claimed that the Indian Army was indiscriminately picking up men, raiding houses and torturing people in the valley.

She claimed that human rights abuses were being carried out in Kashmir to serve the agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

The allegations had drawn sharp reactions. Rashid however, had said that she was ready to give the evidence when the Indian Army constitutes an inquiry.

The Indian Army has officially rejected Rashid’s claims and called them "baseless" and "unverified".

After the Army dismissed her claims, many accused Rashid of spreading fake news to disrupt peace in Kashmir.